The Wonderful Future That Never Was is a coffee-table book from Popular Mechanics and scifi author Gregory Benford, which chronicles the bizarre (and sometimes correct) predictions that futurists and scientists made between 1903 and 1969. Here's a sneak peek.

Facsimiles of the original articles are included, documenting how the predictions were displayed at the time. We also get information on whether any of these predictions panned out, and what happened to them. If you are a fan of retro-futuristic design, or want to get background on the inventions that inspired scifi authors of yesterday, you'll want to check this one out.